Alex Warren's Debut Album Is the Sound of a Chart-Topping Artist Finding His Way
Warren's song might be a surprising hot-weather hit, but he's been preparing himself for stardom since he was a teen posting skateboarding videos online. Becoming a social media sensation was partly a survival tactic; his father passed died of kidney cancer when he was nine, and his relationship with his mother deteriorated in the ensuing years to the point where she kicked him out of the house when he turned 18. Shortly after that, the Southern California native helped found the Hype House, a Los Angeles where upper-echelon TikTokers lived and created together.
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In 2021, Warren began releasing music, and his debut single, 'One More I Love You,' laid out what would become his musical aesthetic pretty clearly: It's a tense folk-pop ballad with a big chorus and lyrics that glance at his troubled past ('Mom's knees deep in alcohol/But I'm drowning,' he sings on the pre-chorus) led by his voice, a sturdy burr that's accented by a judicious use of vibrato. 'Releasing art that relates to people who share that struggle with anxiety and mental health issues, a struggle that can feel lonely and confusing, feels really powerful and beautiful to me,' he told Rolling Stone in 2022.
You'll Be Alright, Kid, Warren's debut, is a 21-track double album, although he's not making an audacious of a statement as that description makes it seem — last fall he released the 10-track EP You'll Be Alright, Kid, and it makes up this record's second half. Just by looking at the first disc's track listing, one can see how Warren's star has risen in the past 10 months; it includes cameos from catharsis crooner Jelly Roll and shape-shifting BLACKPINK member ROSÉ, in addition to the blockbuster single that's placed smack in its middle.
Warren is an appealing personality, but it doesn't always translate on You'll Be Alright, Kid, which too often feels mired in the self-seriousness of hoary post-grunge and stomp-and-holler folk-pop. Choruses like the refrain of the ROSÉ collab 'On My Mind' don't arrive as much as they explode; backing singers overpower every emotional moment on tracks like 'First Time on Earth' — which is a biblically inspired note of forgiveness to his parents, a sentiment that's more than able to stand on its own without the musical equivalent of neon signs alerting listeners to its importance.
When he switches things up a bit, the record comes up for air. On the punchy 'Getaway Car,' Warren possesses enough swagger to make his curled upper lip audible; 'Everything' is a swirling piano-led cut that doesn't overpower its heightened lyrics ('You might as well/Take the breath from my lungs/The stars from the sky') with theatrics; the first-dance candidate 'Heaven Without You' shows how his tenderness can shine when not surrounded by cavernous drums and campfire singers. Too often, though, the material he's working with sounds reheated, reminding one of the days when the first iteration of American Idol was dominated by guitar-toting troubadours like Philip Phillips and when Mumford & Sons and Of Monsters and Men ruled the alt-rock charts. Warren is still young — he turns 25 in September — and he still has time to chart his own artistic course in ways that show off his charm and musical curiosity while not discounting the trials he's endured en route to pop's highest heights.
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